new criticism
- noun
- /nuː ˈkrɪtɪsɪzəm/
- Archaic
:
nueva crítica
- According to New Criticism, the meaning of a text should be derived from its words and structure alone.
Examples
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And the aftermath of the historical close reading aftermath of the New Criticism does precisely that.
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You know, I mean, the New Criticism just isn't interested in those sorts of spontaneous overflow.
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New Criticism is not 'true' or 'false,' but is a culturally situated set of assumptions about the nature of texts, readers, and the transactions between the two.
Academic text (1992) -
The method known as New Criticism allows scholars to examine texts without considering the author's background.
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In literature classes, students often explore New Criticism to understand the significance of language in a poem.
Synonyms
19
5.2
Study of a text that looks at how it is put together and its themes
4
5.1
A close study of a text or work of art to judge its strengths and weaknesses
A close, careful reading of a text to explain its meaning
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although 'new' + 'criticism' could literally mean 'recent criticism', the term refers to a specific, technical school of literary theory (focused on close reading and excluding external context) that is lexicalized and not inferable from the constituents. A B1 learner who knows the words would not reliably derive this methodological meaning, so the expression functions as an opaque term.
Etymology
New criticism comes from critics in the early 1900s who wanted a 'new' way to study poems and stories: they looked only at the words and shape of the page, not at the author's life or history. Imagine people with magnifying glasses reading the page closely — that picture explains why new criticism means a method that focuses only on the text itself.